


Always, Yes

by idrilhadhafang



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angry Poe Dameron, Angst with a Happy Ending, Love Confessions, Love/Hate, M/M, Mute Kylo Ren, Not Luke Skywalker Friendly, Post-Canon, Requited Love, temporarily
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-02-20
Packaged: 2019-11-01 03:40:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17859563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: Kylo’s gone into a stage of self-imposed muteness after the decisive battle with the Resistance. It’s Poe who may or may not break through to him.





	Always, Yes

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Future Fic
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

“You don’t have to worry about him,” said the guard. Even as he led Poe down the hall towards Kylo’s cell, past the remaining First Order members who seemed to claw at the cages and snarl insults at Poe, Poe kept his calm; he had kept his calm in much worse situations than this. “He hasn’t spoken a word in a long while. The last time that someone tried...it was a losing battle, that one.”  
  
Poe couldn’t say he knew how to feel. He knew, logically, that he “should” be happy or frustrated, in that sadistic way people got when they wanted to get revenge. Instead, he felt...almost unsatisfied. He wished he could feel something certain, instead of this vague unsatisfied feeling that seemed to swirl at him.  
  
The guard dropped him off at the cell. “Someone’s here to see you, Ren,” he said evenly. “The General of the Resistance. Don’t know if it was out of the goodness of his heart.” A beat. “Oh, and General, if you make a scene or lay a hand on him in any way, we’re throwing you out. Not that I’m fond of him, but I want to keep my prison neat.”  
  
Poe nodded. He’d try not to make a scene. Or hurt Kylo. Just to keep the prison neat.  
  
The guard was just outside even as Poe took out his bagged lunch. Kylo had prison food (not exactly a banquet, but it was clear the guard was trying to treat the prisoners fairly. A lot of restraint, all things considered), but he’d shoved it to the side. Poe didn’t know if it was a hunger strike or something else.  
  
“Not exactly how I pictured negotiations,” Poe said wryly. “Especially when you’re not on the talkative side.”  
  
Kylo didn’t say anything. He was just staring, straight ahead, staring at Poe, past him. It was almost like Poe was there and not there all at once.  
  
“I had...questions. I don’t want to ‘make a scene’, but...I have them.”  
  
More silence. Kylo turned his head. He seemed to be listening.  
  
“Why did you kill your father?”  
  
Nothing.  
  
“No, seriously, Ben, just talk to me. It’s not like you can’t.”  
  
A shake of the head.  
  
Poe sighed. “You can’t talk, or you don’t like being called Ben?”  
  
Another shake of the head. This was like a frustrating game that Poe didn’t want to play.  
  
“I’ll...go with both.” If he couldn’t talk...well, that was a hell of a state to see the man you loved in.  
  
The man you loved. Well, Poe thought, he couldn’t say that he expected that thought.  
  
“Your mother misses you.”  
  
Another shake of the head, and a slashing throat motion.  
  
“No!” Poe said. “She...wouldn’t want to kill you. Mothers don’t do that.”  
  
Another shake of the head.  
  
“She misses you. Don’t...don’t be melodramatic. She’s not...” But then again, was Poe just expecting too much of the best here? Leia had given him a purpose after Ben had abandoned him on Yavin. But she’d also hit, humiliated and tased him. And imprisoned him, making him believe the escape pods were doomed until conveniently revealing what Holdo had planned.  
  
Kylo tilted his head. If he was reading Poe’s thoughts...well, that went to places that Poe still hated.  
  
Kylo halted, looking sadder, almost...alone? It seemed to come out of nowhere. If it was in response to Poe’s thoughts...  
  
A nod.  
  
“Then stop doing that.” A beat. “I know you had no control over it as Ben, but...you knew what you were doing as Kylo. And you can say it was ‘just’ an interrogation, but that’s a lie and you know it.” Poe kept his voice even all the while. “What I don’t understand is why you left...”  
  
His voice cracked. He knew he was on the brink of making a scene.  
  
“Son?” The guard, more sympathetic. “You okay? Is this man bothering you?”  
  
“You said it yourself,” Poe said. “He’s not talking.” He took a deep breath. “But I’ll holler if there’s trouble.”  
  
“Good. I’ll be out if you need me.”  
  
The guard was good as his word. It was then that Kylo spoke. “Ask Rey.”  
  
Poe could have jolted. “You...can talk.” It was something he couldn’t make a sarcastic remark to; he was so shocked.  
  
“Ask her.” It was almost a relief to hear Ben’s voice, unfiltered, soft, deep, pretty, almost hypnotic when he wasn’t angry. Maybe a bit hoarse with disuse, but it was Ben. “I told her the truth.”  
  
_Well, that’s reassuring,_ Poe thought sarcastically.  
  
Kylo tilted his head. “And if you can’t take her word for it, take Artoo’s, take anyone’s who was there. At least if you can’t or won’t take mine.”  
  
“Why won’t you just tell me?”  
  
“You seem to believe I’m the monster. That I should have been...euthanized as a baby.”  
  
“You can read my thoughts. Have I ever thought that the moment I walked in?”  
  
Kylo seemed to be trying to come up with an example. Exhibit A. And failing.  
  
Because he was wrong. For all his swirling emotions about Kylo, euthanizing a baby wasn’t one of them. Even if he and Kylo hadn’t had that history, Poe was Poe, and he wasn’t a monster himself.  
  
Kylo continued. “Go to her. Ask her questions. She’ll tell you the truth.”  
  
“I’ll do it for my sake then.”  
  
He was talking. He just hadn’t said Poe’s name. It was a petty detail, and yet Poe longed for it. To not just be General or Dameron or General Dameron, but...Poe.  
  
He wanted it. And even discussing what a feat it was that Kylo had actually said several words (several being an understatement), Poe wanted it, more than he could know.  
  
***  
  
Rey told him. Told him everything. And even though Kylo had said she’d tell him the truth, all of it seemed too horrifying to be real. Luke, try to kill Ben? It couldn’t be — but why would Kylo and Rey be conspiring to destroy Luke’s legacy?  
  
She had proof too. Even watching the holorecordings of Ben practically stumbling from the collapsed hut, towards the Academy...it all made sense. Ben had been disheveled that night. Giving vague answers when Poe asked what had happened. And then there was the fact that Luke could barely look them in the eye when they’d come together, sans Ben, after the massacre. Even Luke’s cover story — Leia had been practically bristling with suspicion when she had spoken with him —  
  
Everything seemed to be piecing together. And Poe hated it.  
  
“Why would Luke lie?” Poe said, after the holorecordings mercifully ended.  
  
“I don’t know,” Rey said. “Perhaps he was ashamed.”  
  
Poe snorted. “Not ashamed enough, considering he showed up at Crait.”  
  
“Poe — ”  
  
“He’s responsible for all of it!” Poe shouted. “He’s...I trusted him since I was a kid, and he was hurting my _Ben_ — ”  
  
He cut himself off. No. Ben wasn’t his. His name wasn’t even Ben anymore. No matter how much Poe wanted him to be.  
  
Rey stared at him. “Did you wait until you were away from Ben to make that scene?”  
  
“I was mad. I am mad. I...stang.” Poe closed his eyes. “I can’t even say he’s mine. He was never mine, Rey.”  
  
“He spoke to you. That says something. He...didn’t even talk to me. We spoke through our Bond, but that’s not the same as out loud.”  
  
“So?”  
  
“Maybe ‘your Ben’ isn’t as far away as you think. Maybe...Luke didn’t good as kill him.”  
  
“I don’t know.” Stars, considering everything that happened, how could anything be okay?  
  
Poe buried his face in his hand. Ben wasn’t his. Probably never was, probably never would be.  
  
***  
  
“I believe you.”  
  
That was what Poe said over a bagged lunch in their cell.  
  
“But I don’t understand,” Poe said. “Why couldn’t you have come to me? I could have helped you.”  
  
“I thought Snoke could complete my training. From there...I did terrible, inexcusable things." A beat. “I sometimes do wonder what it would have been like if I went with you. We could have been legends.”  
  
“We still could be.”  
  
“Not me.”  
  
“Your grandfather was redeemed.”  
  
“He was different. When even Luke Skywalker — ”  
  
“Skywalker was a hypocrite. He always was. He wasn’t a god.” A beat. “He tried to kill you when you were being mentally raped in your sleep. That I can’t forgive.”  
  
“Why?”  
  
Poe’s face softened. “You don’t know?”  
  
He wanted to make a scene. Maybe after the trial, whatever Kylo’s — whatever Ben’s — fate was.  
  
The guard was turned away now. He slipped in earphones, almost like he was giving them the privacy that they needed.  
  
Poe took a deep breath. “Even after all you did, I love you. And I want to know if I’m...good enough for you to feel the same.”  
  
“Yes.” Kylo’s voice was soft, but in the jail cell, it held so much power. “Always, yes.”


End file.
